How to earn money as a Freelancer in 2021 : A step-by-step Guide
Think School
0:00 Hi everybody.
0:01 Welcome to the 5 minutes Fridays, this is a new series we are starting
0:04 up which is practically the QnA series wherein I
0:07 take up questions from you and I will
0:09 try to give you the answer within 5 minutes.
0:11 So, let's get started.
0:13 [INTRO] The question that we have today is a question that is being asked
0:22 all the time and that is How do you make money as a teenager?
0:26 How do you make money as a 20 y/o?
0:28 Or how do you go out there and make a side income?
0:31 But before we get started there are a few disclaimers that I wanna give you.
0:34 The first disclaimer that I have for you is that I primarily believe
0:37 that it is important for you to go out there and seek an understanding
0:41 of the people around you because people skill is by far the most valuable
0:46 skill that you can cultivate during
0:48 your school times and during your college times.
0:50 WHY?
0:50 Because the moment you jump into corporate, the moment you mess up with people
0:54 in the corporate it's going to get you into trouble.
0:56 In college it might get you into less trouble;
0:59 so I would say fail over there so that the stakes will
1:02 be low and you will acquire your learnings before the stakes go high.
1:06 The second disclaimer that I have for you is that the teenage
1:09 or the early 20s is the time wherein you're supposed to explore a lot
1:14 and as much as people think that you have to find what you
1:17 love I think it is equally important to find what you do not love.
1:22 So, I would say go out there and try a lot
1:24 of things and then try to understand what you love
1:27 and what you don't love because the moment you find what
1:31 you don't love you go one step closer to what you love.
1:34 So, go out there and explore a lot, fail a lot, eventually,
1:37 you will begin to understand that this is your thing and this is not.
1:41 If this is very very clear to you, let's get started.
1:44 Now, this episode is divided into 3 segments.
1:46 The first segment is where I will
1:48 give you an understanding of the freelance economy.
1:51 The second segment is where I teach you how
1:53 do you exactly go onto become a good freelancer.
1:55 I'm gonna give you a framework that you
1:57 can use no matter which profession you belong to.
2:00 And third and most importantly, I'm going to introduce you to a few tools.
2:03 I'm just gonna give you a glimpse of 1-2 tools,
2:06 rest of them, you can find in the description.
2:08 So, let's get started with the first
2:10 segment and that is understanding the freelance market.
2:13 The first thing that you need to understand is
2:14 that Internet is becoming more and more important by the day.
2:18 When it comes to the early 1990s wherein
2:20 India actually opened up to the foreign markets.
2:23 That's when Internet was merely a tool,
2:26 a fancy tool that could be used in the offices.
2:29 Several companies were very reluctant to use the Internet
2:32 but as we started going towards early 2000s
2:35 Internet became an essential tool because of which
2:38 your organisation could perform better and could become more efficient.
2:42 By 2010, Internet became a necessity because
2:45 of which if you did not use the Internet, your competition would outperform you.
2:50 BUT As soon as we started to go towards 2014-2015 we started
2:54 to see startups like Ola and Uber lay their foundations in India.
2:58 And in 2016, the Jio wave happened.
3:01 So, practically speaking, although Internet is not new to India the accessiblity
3:05 of Internet is something that is fairly new to India.
3:09 And after 2016, when everybody started to get access to the Internet today
3:14 Internet is not just a tool that will turn you into an efficient organisation.
3:18 It is the very foundation based on which your organisation has been built.
3:23 So, Ola cannot exist without the Internet.
3:25 Uber cannot exist without the Internet.
3:27 And so is the case with Zomato, Swiggy and the rest of the startups.
3:31 Now, let's say Think School itself.
3:33 If Internet weren't there, we would be teaching in classrooms but because we
3:37 have the Internet today we do not teach in classrooms,
3:40 as a result of which Internet is the very foundation of our organisation.
3:45 And because of the rise of Internet based companies
3:49 the accessiblity of employment has also increased by a large extent.
3:54 Now, one of the best ways to actually draw
3:57 a correlation between Internet and the freelance economy would be
4:00 to have a look at the average speed of the Internet
4:03 and try to understand how this happened in the US.
4:06 In 2014, it was 12-13 Mbps which is now the case in India.
4:12 The average Internet speed in India is close to 12-13 Mbps.
4:16 And you will see that from 2014 onwards the US freelance economy started
4:21 booming and today the United States
4:24 is looking at $1.2 trillion freelance economy.
4:28 Now, come back to India.
4:30 We are at the stage that US was in 2014 because of which by 2025,
4:36 even India could be looking at a trillion dollar freelance economy.
4:41 So, this is my economic projection to tell you
4:44 as to what exactly is the future of freelance economy.
4:47 Now, I come to the second point that is why do Indians have an upper
4:51 hand as compared to the citizens of US when it comes to freelance economy.
4:55 Well, if you look at the rise of companies like TCS,
4:58 Infosys these are consultancy services which have clients in the US
5:01 and because labour is extremely cheap in India they
5:04 have their entire setup in India because of which they
5:07 are able to provide cheap labour hence maximise their profits.
5:10 And even companies in the US are able
5:12 to benefit from companies like TCS and Infosys So, practically speaking,
5:16 they would rather hire and Indian keep him happy in India
5:20 and pay him more than the average salary offered to Indians as compared
5:24 to paying the exact same amount to an American who will
5:27 be extremely sad because it is way below the average American income.
5:31 And this format is the reason why
5:33 consultancy services like TCS and Infosys and all
5:35 these IT companies have been very progressive and they
5:38 were able to hit their pot of gold.
5:41 And now, in the next 2-3 years,
5:42 the same thing is going to happen to the freelance economy.
5:45 Over here, let's take a very simple example of hiring
5:48 an editor in the US versus hiring an editor in India.
5:52 Both of you will use the exact same software.
5:54 It will either be Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro.
5:58 Both of you guys might have the exact same laptop.
6:00 You would have a Macbook Pro.
6:01 He would have a Macbook Pro Both of you might also
6:04 have the same skill but when it comes to a US citizen, he would charge, say,
6:10 ₹6000/min for the footage he is going to edit
6:13 but in India even if you charge ₹2000/min and you edit
6:16 a 10 minute long video that is enough to put food
6:19 into your belly for the next one month but for him,
6:22 that wil not even be sufficient for one week.
6:25 So, if you see the same win-win situation
6:28 that was cost to TCS and Infosys is now going
6:31 to be the cost for Indians in general because
6:34 they can charge very less for the exact same work.
6:37 And yet provide the exact same skillset with the exact same competency.
6:41 And because of this, Indian citizens like you and me
6:44 will have a much upper hand as compared to US citizens.
6:53 MONEY MONEY A LOT OF MONEY This is the reason
6:58 why freelance economy is going to become extremely progressive
7:01 in India and in the next 5 years it
7:04 wouldn't be surprising to see people working from their homes.
7:06 In fact, it would be weird if you see people going to office.
7:10 So, to put that straight, there are 3 reasons you should believe that freelance
7:13 economy is going to become extremely progressive in India.
7:15 Number one, is the economic projection from the United States.
7:19 Number two, is cheap labour, hence the pivoting is going to happen from the US
7:24 to India giving you the upper hand and number three
7:27 is the rise of Internet companies in India which badly
7:30 require the freelance economy because it is super cost efficient.
7:35 Now, let's talk about how do you
7:37 exactly become a successful freelancer in India.
7:39 People, it's very simple.
7:40 Three steps Number one is go out there and do
7:42 some market research wherein you just have to go to different
7:45 freelance websites go out there and find out the skill
7:48 that you could be mastering or you are a master in.
7:51 And after you pick that particular skill go out there and find
7:54 out which one of those subset in that skill is actually trending.
7:58 For example, when it comes to something like video editing.
8:00 Let's say making trailers is trending and that is a skill that is in demand.
8:05 You should learn making trailers by using
8:08 video editing and not video editing in general.
8:10 Obviously the general understanding is more important but you
8:13 also need to know where is the specialisation required.
8:16 And once you have a clear understanding of where the specialisation is
8:20 required you can go out there and take up courses on that.
8:22 Now, I am using video editing as just a placeholder.
8:25 This could be any skill.
8:26 This could be SEO.
8:27 This could be copyrighting.
8:28 This could be anything.
8:29 And then last and most importantly,
8:31 find out people who are actually very good at it who have been
8:35 given 5 star rating or 4 star rating by 1000 or 2000 people.
8:39 And when you go to their profile,
8:40 check out the quality of work that they are putting out.
8:43 Once you understand the quality of work that they are putting out that will
8:46 be your benchmark that you have to achieve in the next one or two months.
8:50 If you are already a master in that you can just go out
8:52 there and put out your gig and people will come and hire you.
8:55 So, once you do this procedure, you will understand 3 things.
8:57 Number one, is your skill in demand?
9:00 Number 2, in that skill which is the subset
9:02 of that skill which is in demand and will pay you well.
9:05 And number three and most importantly what is the benchmark
9:08 of that skill which you are supposed to achieve.
9:11 And once you have a very clear understanding of this pathway of which skill,
9:15 which subset and what benchmark you can take up courses
9:18 which will help you obtain that goal of reaching that benchmark.
9:23 And here's where here's where Udemy,
9:25 Skillshare and all these other websites come into play just make sure that you
9:30 don't do it for the certificate and you do it to actually acquire the skill.
9:33 Now, the one disclaimer that I wanna put out over here is if you
9:36 want to learn a skill you take up one course it doesn't look good,
9:39 do not quit over there take up many more courses.
9:42 Once you are done with taking up 4-5 courses which
9:45 have got social validation and then if you feel this is
9:48 not your cup of tea go out there and look
9:51 for next skill and repeat the same procedure all over again.
9:54 Just keep two things in mind Number one, do not give up.
9:57 Number two, you will require a lot of practice to become a master at that skill
10:02 because now you are competing with the best
10:04 of the best in that particular domain.
10:08 Once you are done with all of this.
10:09 Once you have acquired the skill.
10:10 Now it is time to go out there and look
10:13 for tools which will help you become a great freelancer.
10:15 The first one you require is the tool that can actually teach you that skill.
10:19 As far as my understanding is concerned for something like graphic design
10:22 or video editing you could go out there and learn it from Skillshare.
10:25 The second type of tool that you require is a tool that will actually take
10:29 you to the marketplace and here's where
10:30 websites like fiverr and freelancer come into play.
10:33 I'm gonna put out a long list of all the tools I know in the description.
10:36 So, please go out there and check it out.
10:38 So, the moral of the story is you need to know 3 things.
10:41 Number one an understanding of the market to be able
10:43 to draw a projection and this is something that you
10:45 can do not just for freelance market but for any
10:47 market that you want to start our company in.
10:50 Number two is after you do that you gotta
10:51 find out what are your benchmarks and do some
10:53 market study to understand what exactly is going
10:56 to be your pathway to be able to make money.
10:58 And number three and most importantly you can go out
11:00 there and find tools that can help you achieve so.
11:02 This is a standard procedure that you can do for literally any process and you
11:07 will become successful in finding a perfect
11:09 roadmap to help you achieve your goal.
11:11 That's all from my side for today guys.
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11:22 it out in the comment section and if I find a question
11:24 which is something that will be able to help out many
11:27 people I will definitely make a special video on the same.
11:30 And third and most importantly Please subscribe to this channel and share
11:34 this video with the people who desperately are looking out for opportunities.
11:38 Because everybody wants opportunities everybody is willing to do
11:41 the hardwork but very few people have the roadmap.
11:44 And if you're somebody who is like this I
11:46 just hope that you found the roadmap from this video.
11:48 Thank you so much for watching.
11:49 I'll see you soon, bye bye.
11:51 Take care.